Nutrition, Mental Health & Enrichment Program
NUTRITION
“What is one of the most prominent obstacles hindering the child’s learning process? Hunger! Chronic hunger can prevent students from making the most of a formal education, no matter how hard they try to ignore its effects. The sad truth is that hunger can have physical and psychological effects on young people that make learning substantially difficult. Food is the fuel necessary to get through a normal day. Calories in food provide energy to carry out regular day-to-day activities. Without an adequate amount of this energy, students may fall asleep in school or lack the energy to pay attention to an entire day of classes.” - 2014 Borgen Report
With food security being an issue for some families, Teach My People feeds our students a healthy snack each day and dinner each night before they head home. During our summer program, we provide a healthy breakfast and lunch to our students daily.
Last year we started packing to-go meals for our families with younger siblings not yet in our program. We consistently have families take the extra food we give out each night. We also host a weekly cooking club for interested students that teach fundamental skills in both nutrition and cooking. This helps equip our students with the knowledge and skills needed to better provide for themselves and their families in the kitchen.
Mental Health
TMP has recognized that emotional barriers prevent many students from being able to choose appropriate emotional responses to negative situations. With this, our mental health program has become vital to provide tools so each child can step into social and emotional health and avoid the pitfalls of risky behavior.
In 2017, we started our mental health program which is currently being administered by Dave Murray, our on-site therapist - “Coach Dave” to our students. Dave and our campus staff work hard TO FOSTER AN ENVIRONMENT WHERE STUDENTS FEEL SAFE TO BE A KID, to learn, to challenge themselves, to have positive mental health tools, and to grow as productive individuals.
Our staff and student values guide our daily interactions and hold hands to create our TMP culture. They love Coach Dave!!
